My name is Ariana and I’m 16. I live and go to school in Dublin. I love going to school. All my friends are there. I play football and am on the student council.

My family moved to Ireland many years ago to give me and my siblings a better future and a good education. But things have been really hard because we are undocumented.

I did my Junior Cert in June and I did pretty well, but being undocumented means you can’t go to college. If I don’t have papers I won’t be able to study after the Leaving Cert.

You can’t travel when you’re undocumented. I haven’t seen a lot of my family for years. I can only talk to my grandparents through Skype.

I can’t go on school trips because I have no papers and I feel I have to lie and make excuses when we’re asked in school. When you’re undocumented, you’re scared of visiting places outside your local community because the police or someone might ask you questions.

There’s a lot of fear when you’re undocumented. You’re scared the police will knock on your door and take you away. I don’t want to go back to where I was born. This is my home now. Ireland is where I belong.

A while back I got involved with Young, Paperless and Powerful (YPP), which is the youth group of the Justice for the Undocumented campaign for regularisation. We take action to make change for young people like us who are undocumented in Ireland. We made a film to help people understand our situation and to show them that a 16-year-old like me should never feel the way I’m feeling right now.

The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission was set up in November 2014 as an independent public body. The Commission's goal is an inclusive Ireland where human rights and equality are fully enjoyed by everyone, everywhere.

The Make Rights Real public awareness campaign aims to show how human rights and equality are relevant to all our lives and help people understand their rights.
Make Rights Real is an initiative of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission.
Make Rights Real is co-funded by the PROGRESS Programme of the European Union.